Mary's Place - a shelter for the homeless -- finds itself without a home

Doll Caldwell, left, and Debra York work in the kitchen at Mary's Place, an emergency day shelter for women and children in Seattle. (Photo: Eric Ruthford)

By Eric Ruthford

PostGlobe

Linda Swanigan comes to Mary's Place because it's difficult for her to find a place to live. "I get a lot of runaround on housing. Some places have a two-month wait, others a three-month wait." she said. "I've been homeless for a year in October, since I lost my Section 8 housing." She lives in her car, and she comes to Mary's Place for housing referrals and to use the showers and washing machines. She's been unable to work because of an injury, but she hopes to get new training from the Washington state Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, and a job.

The 56-year-old woman wears a clean white shirt and dark brown pants. Mary's Place is her starting point for going on interviews for housing – after getting cleaned up here, she says, she doesn't "look homeless."

J-Lee Craven, 6, displays a doll at Mary's Place, an emergency day shelter for women and children in Seattle. (Photo: Eric Ruthford)

Mary's Place, an emergency day shelter for homeless women and children, may close down for lack of a building in a few months. The reason why is a parting of ways with its former landlord, First United Methodist Church. But the disagreement isn't the usual kind in Seattle over rising property values and rents. This one was about how best to lead homeless ministries.

Mary's Place started out in rented space in the First United Methodist Church at Fifth and Marion, 10 years ago. When the building was sold, Mary's Place shelter managers had expected to be able to move in to United Methodists' new building, under construction at Second and Denny. Mary's Place wasn't invited to the new building.

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These days, Mary's Place is in a cramped, 2,700-square-foot building at Dexter and John, serving between 40 and 70 women a day. Executive Director Marty Hartman says that the day shelter provides a "one-stop shopping place" for homeless women where they can receive their mail, use telephones to access free voice mail, get meals, clothing and can meet with doctors and nurses who volunteer their time. The charity also sometimes provides hotel vouchers for newly homeless women because the wait to get in to a night shelter with a bed can be a week or two.

The building Mary's Place is in now, which belongs to Denny Park Lutheran Church, isn't a viable option for the future – it's up for sale, and it's too small. The shelter needs an 8,000-square-foot space, ideally in the bus system's downtown ride-free zone.

Being unable to move in to the new United Methodist building – and having to find a new location with little money to do it – was a surprise for Hartman because she and other staff members had been involved in the architectural design process at United Methodist, and the shelter had a verbal agreement with United Methodist that they could use the new space at a reduced rental rate.

They didn't get that deal, though, because their expected landlord wanted to start its own service to the homeless.

Rev. Crystal Sygeel at the construction site of the new First United Methodist Church at Second and Denny in Seattle. (Photo: Eric Ruthford)

Rev. Crystal Sygeel, Associate Pastor of First United Methodist Church, says that at first there was a verbal agreement to have Mary's Place move in to the new building, but as the design process continued, members of the congregation began to ask whether they were doing the best they could to help the homeless.

While they were supportive of Mary's Place's mission, only three members of the congregation were able participate as volunteers with the shelter, and Mary's Place didn't allow men to participate because many clients of the women's shelter have domestic violence issues in their pasts that could be triggered by the presence of men. The congregation decided it wanted to take more direct responsibility in ministering to the homeless than it would from continuing to have Mary's Place in its building.

"That commitment would have continued a landlord-tenant relationship. We would be farming it out. I hate to make it sound that way, but we wanted to see the entire congregation transformed by this work," she said.

Earlier this year, the congregation invited Mary's Place to become part of United Methodist, which would have ended the status of Mary's Place as an independent charity.

"We were envisioning that Mary's Place would come in to that space, and we would figure out a way for the congregation to be more involved in the ministry," she said.

However, that arrangement didn't work out for the shelter. Mary's Place declined to join with United Methodist. Hartman said that she didn't want the charity and its mission to get absorbed by United Methodist, and being able to maintain control over the charity is important both for her and for the charity's board.

"We have a feeling that what God ordained here 18 years ago needs to be maintained," she says. Hundreds of other churches, individuals and foundations give donations to Mary's Place, and losing independence could mean losing some of those relationships.

"We would have been seen as a mission of the United Methodist Church rather than as a church of women of all faiths," Hartman said.

Another advantage of being a small and independent program is that Mary's Place can change as new needs become apparent. After the day shelter started work in the new building in the Denny Park neighborhood, they realized that prostitution was a bigger problem there than at their old location.

"We had prostitutes come in to use the phone to set up dates," Hartman said. "We had to say you can't do that, but you can come in for hygiene and food, and when you're ready for help, you can come in for that, too."

Mary's Place started a prostitution outreach group headed by a physician, a nurse and a woman recovered from a 15 years of addiction and prostitution. This support group's purpose is to get women out of prostitution, but sometimes the discussion moves to sharing a bad-date list of abusive clients to avoid. And, the group provides make-up, perfume and condoms to its members.

"Not all boards would be willing to allow that," Hartman says, which is why maintaining independent leadership of the charity is so important.

Sygeel didn't say whether United Methodist would approve of that program, but said that the congregation would have had to be more involved. "I can't say they would've gotten full reign, but we never got to have that conversation," she said.

When its new location is finished next February, United Methodist plans to open a 24-hour enhanced shelter for the homeless. There will be 31 cubicles that have beds and locked cabinets, and a dining facility to provide meals. Sygeel said that the church's urban outreach committee decided on this plan after visiting eight other homeless-service sites and organized a forum where five homeless-service professionals from other agencies came.

"We asked them, 'If you were given this amount of space and given what you know about the situation in the homeless community, what would you do if you were us?'" she said.

Eventually, they decided on a new ministry to help the working homeless – men who have jobs but still cannot find housing. It's designed to be a transition between an emergency shelter and low-income housing. And, the church is planning to staff the facility with its own congregation members – between 20 and 30 in case management, and another 30 in food delivery. This ministry, she said, will both meet an unmet need among the homeless and transform the congregation through service.

But Mary's Place – and the future of the women it serves – is up in the air.

Mary's Place wasn't compatible with the new type of service that the congregation wants to do, and Sygeel admits that it was a mistake to promise space to Mary's Place first and then plan out the new ministry.

The church does want Mary's Place to find a new space and to continue its service, she said. Then, Seattle will both have a day shelter for women and children, and can have the new 24-hour men's shelter.

Seattle City Councilwoman Jan Drago said that she was disappointed when she found out that Mary's Place wouldn't be able to move in to the new building. The City of Seattle and King County each provided $500,000 grants for the preservation of the old sanctuary at Fifth and Marion that the church sold and for support of the church's future homeless services.

"One would have thought that with $1 million they could have found a way to help Mary's Place transition," Drago said. She's hopeful that this fall that the city can help find a space for Mary's Place as well, but it's going to be difficult, given the funding deficit caused by the recession. "We don't want to lose this service," she said.

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